I think Ben's probably relieved that he can go back to short hair and clean shaven. ;-)

Now that a new generation of skaters turned commentators have graduated into the professional ranks- I hope they "retire" Peter Carruthers. He just asks the cheesiest questions!! Maybe he's mandated to ask certain questions but boy his delivery is just sooo over the top and not in a good way. Even Scott Hamilton calms down in the studio.

So funny at the end before they faded to break, Johnny makes this "Yes, Mr Carruthers. Yes." comment that made me giggle. He feels the cheese too. ;-)

I have long learnt that in Figure Skating, it ain't over til it's over. Torino OD anyone?

Which happened 4 years ago and hasn't happened since. There is just too much consistency now for the posdium to change. I'm trying really hard not to be bitter. I really really wanted D/W to win. I just cannot warm up to V/M, and I really wish I could.

(Bolding mine) I agree with this, but D/W aren't given the edge from the judges on the OD which I think they deserve.

They were given the edge. We forget that Virtue and Moir had many problems with their OD early on. They had the errors in at Skate Canada. They were clean at the GPF, but dumbed it down a little. They added back the complexity at Nationals and improved their midline non touching step sequence. Then they absolutely aced it at the Olympics but still left points on the table (two level three elements, two level four). It comes down to performance, and I think the scoring's been fair (I haven't seen it, referring to general).

I think Ben's probably relieved that he can go back to short hair and clean shaven. ;-)

Now that a new generation of skaters turned commentators have graduated into the professional ranks- I hope they "retire" Peter Carruthers. He just asks the cheesiest questions!! Maybe he's mandated to ask certain questions but boy his delivery is just sooo over the top and not in a good way. Even Scott Hamilton calms down in the studio.

So funny at the end before they faded to break, Johnny makes this "Yes, Mr Carruthers. Yes." comment that made me giggle. He feels the cheese too. ;-)

I think Johnny thinks Peter is too proper, based on his reaction to something he said yesterday.

I agree with those who think Tanith and Ben did a good job commentating. Even their voices sound well suited to it.

Which happened 4 years ago and hasn't happened since. There is just too much consistency now for the posdium to change. I'm trying really hard not to be bitter. I really really wanted D/W to win. I just cannot warm up to V/M, and I really wish I could.

I love them both so I really have no problem with the results going either way, but I was rooting for D/W a wee bit more lol. But I stand by that nothing is for certain, although V/M's strength does tend to be the FD. (They FINALLY didn't mess up in the twizzles in the OD after screwing it up for 2 years consecutively!)

V/M and D/W are undoubtedly largely consistent skaters, but flukes happened. D/W fell thrice (or was it twice?) in the OD at CoR last season. V/M had two major slips in their OD at SC.

I'd say that 3rd spot is probably more certain. 3 + points is a huge deficit to make up for.

On the US live feed we're getting the audio of Peter on the phone and Tanith and Ben been critiqued on their commentary by a producer. Too funny.

And now Peter is practicing. Universal Sports is really bad with cutting the video/audio feeds after the programs are done. It happens during gymnastics broadcasts, too. It's funny to hear the behind the scenes stuff. But I keep thinking about someone not being aware the video/audio is still running and doing something embarrassing.

Crone/Poirier will join P/B, Z/Z, C/L who may push for podium, but they must wait their turn.

I think Khoklova and Novitski like Belbin and Agosto and Delobre/Schernfeld will be cast off the medal list

The diference between D/W and V/M for me, is not a question of interpretation but of actual dance steps. Both teams had excellent poses while dancing to their individual music, but V/M had more dance steps involved than D/W. D/W did have some interesting and authentic looking Indian poses. JMO.

D/W have an audience-pleasing, beautifully constructed od that they execute extremely well. It's athletic, it's fast. But V/M have an od that, at the level of the blade on the ice - their blades together and working with each other - is just fiendishly difficult. There is almost nothing they do that is not interdependant and intricate, and yet they pull it off with fantastic timing and unison. D/W were skating their od at top form from the start. V/M were not. For the first 3 competitions they had some connection issues at times, and glitches here and there. They went home after the gpf, deconstructed it, trained it, and came back and blew the lights out at Nationals, again at Olympics. That's why they are over D/W. It has nothing to do with the quality of D/W's od, which was always high. It's how V/M execute their od now, coupled with how difficult it is bladewise, and how intricute and intertwined, the timing required. It's both athletic AND refined - extremely, extremely hard. That's why they get the edge. It is not politics at all. One small slip and they're behind Davis and White. Their od is a harder od, their execution is more refined at the basic skating, but still one glitch and they'd lose the top spot to D/W. The judging is right on.

While I much prefer V/M's od to K&O's fd in worlds 1999? 2000? The reason K&O won the title over A&P was also dance steps. A&P's fd was gorgeous, athletic, deep, powerful edges, eye-catching lifts, very musical. K&O's was not as accessible a program, with their African Drum piece and concept, but the actual dancing, no room for error timing, intricacy and interdependance made it a more difficult program than A&P's, and they nailed it and won. As an audience member I prefer A&P. If I were a judge, I'd have had to agree and place K&O first that night though.